synopsychic | (no subject)

[As much as Naoki's wanted to say some of this since... well, since halfway through the mess in Misericordia, he decided to hold off and gather his thoughts first. As bad as that was for him and Kanji, it was worse for other people, and from what he's gathered the other jaunt wasn't exactly a picnic either. And then there was the party, and making that many drinks is more attention-consuming than you might think - and, well, no point in dumping that on people in the same moment as Armin-san's list of the departed. But he doesn't want this to wait until after the next jaunt.

It may not make a whole lot of sense to the new people, but hey, they can get explanations along the way.]

Okay. Now that we've all had a little time to decompress, I have a couple things I want to get on the table.

We need to start pooling information about where we've been, considering how often lately it's turned out to be where at least some of us are going. I know there's not much to be done about Moebius or anything that came before it, but... if we'd had more than half-panicked half-information halfway through everything in Misericordia, we might've been able to save some of our group a world of hurt. I'm not looking to cast blame for what's already happened, I'm looking to improve our chances going forward. [Alcuin and Ambrose tried, and it's not their fault things happened as they did.]

Whenever we can be prepared, there's no reason we shouldn't be. I'm sure some of us have been keeping private records, but we need something everyone can get to. If we can keep a log of the basics of these places - the nuts and bolts, maybe a note of what Trumps showed up if any - it'll help keep us out of a little trouble, anyway. I don't know the best way to do something like this, but I think we need at least one physical copy, since not everyone can work backwards on the network. Probably multiple copies of it, to cover for split groups and infiltrating and all that. A computer that people could Interface the information from might work, but that runs into the same storage issues, not to mention needing a computer for it in the first place.

Helena-san's trying to write up Purgatory as a story. We settled on trying that one because I know the most about it of anything I've been here for but she hadn't. Depending on how well that goes, she'll probably want to talk to people about some of the others, and either way I think we'll have a starting point.

If anyone's willing to help, donate notes, offer a place to keep everything, whatever - I'll take any help I can get with this thing. It's a resource we need, especially if the split-group situation keeps happening.

Another thing that came up in Misericordia before everything went to hell was the idea of trying to run a Sift on a familiar face. This one I'm mostly leaving to everyone who kept Sift - I bet the parameters would be tricky, from what Naoto's said about it before, but establishing a good set would give everyone a chance to try it, next time we run into one of them. All I can really offer on that end is my Assistance, if I'm there and myself when the chance comes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Questing Country was the first time they split the group on any major scale, I think, so if they were it would've been this last jaunt.

Got it. Huh. You said the one girl's name was Mina? Or at least her other name in whichever world that was. Man... And that isn't the baroness, right?

[There's a reason he's asking, but he wants to be clear first.]

No, Mina was the baroness. I never caught a name as opposed to a title in Misericordia, but I don't think they tend to end up with different names.

Ooooh, okay. [Well that's good- now she's an actual familiar face.] That makes things a little easier, at least. We got names or visuals for any of the others? Might be worth keeping everyone up to date on them too if they're gonna be popping up every so often.

You'll have to ask someone else for proper visuals, but I can at least tell you the ones I've run into.

JORD1 was the Prime Defender on the Grid - basically the guy in charge, at least until his tower got blown up. Grizzled old guy with an eyepatch. I have no idea how he actually spells it, the Grid was a weird one for names. Donna was one of the more important angels in Purgatory. Pretty enough, I guess, but I found her overlay pretty insufferable.

[He was seriously considering asking her which sins schadenfreude fell under, and how she held herself accountable for it.]

And then Mina, who I've seen twice - Questing Country and Misericordia. I think someone said a while back she usually shows up with company.

One of them might've turned up in Sarmatia, but you'd have to ask someone who was there, obviously. I don't remember bumping into any in Nova Venezia. There was some speculation that Kanji's overlay's apprenticeship master was one of the people we were in Nova Venezia to find, but no one ever put a name to the guy - the people in important positions like that tend to be either one of our own or a familiar face. Turned out we were looking for one of our own anyway, but being able to put another name to people like that can help narrow things down sometimes.

Mina was also in the... crypt when we were first broken in to two groups as some sort of leader of the people trapping us in there.

She later sought refuge with us when a solar storm came.

Yeah, that's the one that was at the same time as Questing Country. Since Questing Country was a dream space, it kind of makes sense that she was in two places at once - if it happens on another split that doesn't include a dream space, that'll be something bigger.

[An eyepatch, huh? Lololol...

That's something to look out for, at least.

...He laughs at the description of this 'Donna' person, too:]

The hot ones usually are. Insufferable, I mean. [And they make up a good 3/4 of his client list, too. Such a hard life he leads.] Anyway, that's all good to know- if they keep the same names it should make 'em easier to spot.

I think they do, but Mina's the only one I've seen more than once, and I didn't exactly ask for a name this last time. The assumption in Questing Country was that she was dead, up to the point where she turned up badly hurt but very much alive.

[A psychic nod. All good, useful information... He'll be keeping an eye out for her, that's for sure.]

Mm. Anyway-- about 'sifting' these guys... What's that mean?

[It doesn't sound even remotely pleasant; he's totally curious.]

Nothing scary, it's just one of the things people could do on the Grid. Lets people look for patterns in things, but you have to be careful about your parameters or you don't get very useful results. One of my friends kept it afterward, and maybe a few other people, but I never had it to begin with.

[Ooooh, patterns. Patterns he can do.]

I gotcha. Wouldn't mind pickin' your friend's brain about that if there's time for it- that doesn't sound like a bad idea.

[Sounds like the kind of thing that'd be right up his alley- being able to 'sift' through all of the stored garbage in his head more efficiently would be useful in general.] Would it even work on a person, though?

Well, there are patterns in how these guys show up, maybe in what they do when they're around. The parameters would probably be tricky, but there's nothing saying information couldn't be found.

Naoto'll probably want to talk to you some first. She's generally around, though. Short, blue hat, can't miss her.

Naoto-- got it. And I guess as long as you got an escape plan ready for if they get pissed about it it's worth a shot. They won't remember the next time anyway, right?

...There is that. I mean, my part in this is limited to putting the idea out there and boosting the Sift if I'm myself when it happens, but I'd probably need to book it pretty fast too.

I'm sure there'll be an alley to disappear down somewhere. I can't say I know of anywhere without at least one sketchy area to get lost in.

[Even West Gate had had it's shit neighborhoods.]